Carlsbad, CA: (25-27 Sept.) Sure, everybody goes here, about midway between LA and San Diego, just for Legoland California… But for the next few days, everyone should forget Legoland and instead head to the sixth annual Carlsbad Music Festival. The Calder Quartet and California EAR Unit will be playing all kinds of new music, including pieces by John Luther Adams, Daniel Wohl, Keeril Makan, Matt McBane, Ryan Brown, and Yannis Kyriakides. Premieres abound! And the weekend is given over to these ensembles supporting their special guest, guitarist extraordinaire Fred Frith. All that and a nice stretch of beach to boot! Full details on schedules, prices and directions are there on the website.

Columbia, SC: (Friday, 02 October at 7:30PM, the Univ. of SC School of Music Recital Hall, 813 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC) The award-winning Southern Exposure New Music Series presents a performance (and world premiere) by the dynamic ensemble Real Quiet. Composed of percussionist David Cossin, cellist Felix Fan, and pianist Andrew Russo, Real Quiet is dedicated to hard-edge acoustic and electric music that often blurs the borders between genres.

The concert will feature the music of Marc Mellits, with the composer in attendance. Also on the bill are the world premiere of Jacob ter Veldhuis’ Things Like That, a work that weaves together both live performance and fragments of recordings by jazz legend Anita O’Day); Annie Gosfield’s Wild Pitch, inspired by the 2004 World Series; Phil Kline’s Last Buffalo, a tribute to Hunter S. Thompson; and Lou Harrison’s Varied Trio, a piece influenced by music from Indonesia, India, and the European pre-Baroque.

United Kingdom: (25 Sept- 12 Oct) Guitarist Simon Thacker and his group The Nava Rasa Ensemble (Carnatic violin virtuoso Jyotsna Srikanth, Birmingham-based tabla master Sarvar Sabri, Scotland’s string quartet the Edinburgh Quartet, Brazilian bassist Mario Caribé and multi-percussionist Iain Sandilands) will be touring their concert titled “Inner Octaves”. Their website will give you full information on all the dates, times and venues.

Eganville, Ontario: Those of you tired with the same old venues could do worse on Saturday the 26th, than strike out from Ottawa and find the Bonnechere Caves. Deep inside, at 5PM and again at 7PM, Katelyn Clark and Xenia Pestova will provide their consummate playing on toy pianos while Toronto composer Erik Ross provides the electroacoustic soundscape.